SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Blane Heimbach held off Ryan Smith for the $5,000 victory in Saturday night’s 25-lap Jeff’s Auto Body Summer Championship 410 sprint car race at Selinsgrove Speedway.
For Heimbach, who is one of the track’s all-time career leading 358-360 sprint car winners, it was his second in the 410 sprint car ranks at the wheel of the Creasy Signs No. 12 entry.
Bryan Bernheisel came out the winner of a thrilling 25-lap super late model championship race over Rick Eckert and Gregg Satterlee.
Bernheisel also collected $5,000 for this second win of the season and the 11th of his career at the track. He became the first repeat winner in the division while driving the Lazer Chassis No. 119.
Jake Jones drove to his second career win in the annual Roadrunner 20 race. The win was also his fifth of the year at the track.
Third-place starter Blane Heimbach got a start in the sprint car feature and pulled into the early lead. The race was stopped on lap two for a three-car incident in turn two when Ron Aurand’s car turned over on its side.
When the race resumed, Heimbach led sixth-place starter Ryan Smith while a battle for third unfolded between polesitter Nick Sweigart and second-place starter Mark Smith.
By lap nine, the leaders began to encounter slower traffic and R. Smith kept Heimbach in his sights. The caution flag regrouped the field again on lap 12 for debris.
On lap 22, Michael Walter, who was racing fourth, crashed hard in turn three when one of his car’s tires exploded. The race was slowed again with one lap to go when M. Smith’s car developed a flat tire.
In the chase to the checkered flag, Heimbach was victorious by just .80 of a second over Smith, Sweigart, fifth-place starter Chad Trout, and seventh-place starter Steve Buckwalter.
In the super late model feature, second-place starter Jim Bernheisel powered into the lead at the drop of the green flag. J. Bernheisel was chased by his son and polesitter Bryan Bernheisel and fourth-place starter Tim Wilson in the early laps of the race.
The leaders caught slower traffic by lap six when fifth-place starter Coleby Frye advanced to third, only to drop off the pace two laps later.
The first caution flag of the race waved on lap 11 for debris on the speedway. When the race resumed, J. Bernheisel set the pace in front of B. Bernheisel as 10th-place starter Rick Eckert made a thrilling pass between both sixth-place starter Jeff Rine and seventh-place starter Gregg Satterlee for the third position.
Bernheisel’s bid for his first win of the season came to an end when his car fell off the pace on lap 16, allowing B. Bernheisel to inherit the lead with Eckert and Satterlee in tow.
The top three broke away from the pack in a close, high-speed chase for the lead and win with B. Bernheisel coming out the victor by just .53 of a second over Eckert, Satterlee, 15th-place starter Dylan Yoder, and third-place starter Andrew Yoder.